John wrote in part: That said, I haven't been able to find any on-line doc that indicates whether US Immigration treats US flagged vessels any different than Foreign flagged vessels, especially as regards foreign nationals on board, either guests or crew. Does anyone have any experience with this?> No and yes ;-) Any foreign national needs to have the proper Visa in their passport before arriving by sea in a private vessel. This visa is usually different than a normal tourist Visa. For example many foreign nationals are granted a visa upon arrival by common carrier into the US. Others need to get a Visa before departing their home country. Most European and UK citizens fall into this category..or at least have unless the new rules have changed things in the last few months or weeks. They are issued a tourist Visa when they arrive. Now the same individuals if they are aboard your vessel and you arrive in the US they are NOT granted a Visa and in fact you are subject to fines/confiscation, etc if you try to do this. Any non US Citizen aboard needs either a current in force tourist Visa OR a current "D" Visa to be allowed entry. "guest = tourist vs. paid crew = D". For some nationals it is very difficult to even get a "D" Visa vs. a tourist one. Why I don't have a clue. Generally speaking it is costing just shy of a thousand $$ to get US Visa's in most countries. The waiting time is huge 6 months to a year and you have a small chance of success. A UK friend who has had a "D" Visa just spent $300 in appointment/visa fees and it took him 3 months to get it renewed in the UK this spring/summer at the US Embassy in person. It used to be renewed for 10 years now it's a much shorter time before he has to go back. I think 2 years but not sure. Confused yet? These are just the rules to enter the US with non-citizens. Think of doing this and understanding the rules that each country has if you have a mixed crew. On our recent cruise to 14 countries it would have been a nightmare if we had a mixed passport crew! Again the rules are changing so fast that keeping up is a full time job. It's a damn shame, IMHO, that we can't choose our cruising friends without checking their/our passports/Visas and having to work our itinerary around the combination of rules today.....tomorrow they'll be different again. Hope this helps a bit. As always YMMV..... Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58

Agree that the Visa issue is a mess... I won't editorialize except to say it is a fine time indeed to hold a US passport as that gets you into most places without visa or visa-on-demand (well, except OZ). And a very bad time for most people to visit "Fortress America". Actually, my question had more to do with the flag of the vessel than the folks on board. In other words, if I show up a foreign flag, does Immigration approach the boat clearance issue differently than if I was flying the US flag (and the boat was USCG Documented). Or do they just focus in on each person and ignore where the boat is from? John On Oct 26, 2007, at 9:22 AM, Dave Cooper wrote: > John wrote in part: That said, I haven't been able to find any on- > line doc > that indicates whether US Immigration treats US flagged vessels any > different than Foreign flagged vessels, especially as regards foreign > nationals on board, either guests or crew. > Does anyone have any experience with this?> > > No and yes ;-) > Any foreign national needs to have the proper Visa in their > passport before > arriving by sea in a private vessel. This visa is usually different > than a > normal tourist Visa. > For example many foreign nationals are granted a visa upon arrival > by common > carrier into the US. Others need to get a Visa before departing > their home > country. > > Most European and UK citizens fall into this category..or at least > have > unless the new rules have changed things in the last few months or > weeks. > They are issued a tourist Visa when they arrive. Now the same > individuals if > they are aboard your vessel and you arrive in the US they are NOT > granted a > Visa and in fact you are subject to fines/confiscation, etc if you > try to do > this. > Any non US Citizen aboard needs either a current in force tourist > Visa OR a > current "D" Visa to be allowed entry. "guest = tourist vs. paid > crew = D". > For some nationals it is very difficult to even get a "D" Visa vs. > a tourist > one. Why I don't have a clue. Generally speaking it is costing just > shy of a > thousand $$ to get US Visa's in most countries. The waiting time is > huge 6 > months to a year and you have a small chance of success. > > A UK friend who has had a "D" Visa just spent $300 in appointment/ > visa fees > and it took him 3 months to get it renewed in the UK this spring/ > summer at > the US Embassy in person. It used to be renewed for 10 years now > it's a much > shorter time before he has to go back. I think 2 years but not sure. > > Confused yet? These are just the rules to enter the US with non- > citizens. > Think of doing this and understanding the rules that each country > has if you > have a mixed crew. > > On our recent cruise to 14 countries it would have been a nightmare > if we > had a mixed passport crew! Again the rules are changing so fast > that keeping > up is a full time job. > > It's a damn shame, IMHO, that we can't choose our cruising friends > without > checking their/our passports/Visas and having to work our itinerary > around > the combination of rules today.....tomorrow they'll be different > again. > > Hope this helps a bit. > > As always YMMV..... > > Dave & Nancy > Swan Song > Roughwater 58 > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power > > To unsubscribe send email to > passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message. > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.